...The official in charge of the City Vancouver’s Access to Water program has acknowledged my blog post of July 11 calling for a drinking water fountain in front of the Fairview neighbourhood’s Vancouver Public Library Firehall Branch at 1455 West 10th Avenue.

In that blog post of July 11, I pointed out just how few drinking fountains Fairview has compared to the adjacent east Vancouver neighbourhood of Mount Pleasant.

Specifically, I noted how, from Cambie Street on the “10th Avenue local street bikeway“, going east, there were generally fountains ahead, or off to the side, within a kilometre of each other, going all the way to the eastern edge of the city. But, in contrast, traveling west from Cambie along 10th, the next closest fountain was two to three km away.

A drinking fountain at the Firehall Library, I argued, would be well-situated to benefit the greatest number of Fairview residents. It would also benefit cyclists traveling through the neighbourhood on the 10th Avenue bikeway, because it would cut the existing distance between outdoor drinking water fountains along the bikeway in half...

{snip}

...Preet Bal, the program coordinator for Drinking Water Quality and Access to Water with the City of Vancouver—working out of the Water Design Branch of Engineering Services—emailed me today (July 25) to tell me that she was treating my blog post as a request for a drinking water fountain in front of the Fire Hall Library.

Which was very nice of her.

She also acknowledged my alternate suggestion for a fountain location, namely outside the Indigo bookstore on the southwest corner of South Granville Street and West Broadway Avenue.

She receives all requests for water fountain locations made to 3-1-1, or via email to fountain.requests@vancouver.ca and said that such requests help her to gauge the demand for a particular location...

I've already sent my Email to Ms. Bal:Dear Ms. Bal,

As someone who lives on the Eastside and regularly rides along the 10th Ave bike route to and from work at UBC, I strongly support Stanley Woodvine's request to install a water fountain in front of the Firehall Library at 1455 W10th Ave given the long stretch between fountains along that route. In addition, it would be a great addition to the considerable foot traffic in that area.

Ms. Clark's resignation as leader of her party was pretty much inevitable given the wizardry's penchant for jettisoning any and all liabilities whenever necessary. I mean, heckfire, if they could do it to the Capo nobody is ever safe.

But this business of Clark giving up her seat?

Well, that, in my opinion, is the really big deal here.

Why?

Because the NDP/Green coalition now has a two seat majority until the bye-bye (which can be up to six months down the road).

Which means that, for the fall legislative session at least, the speaker is no longer in play and the coalition can actually get some stuff done.

As Norm Farrell points out, a government that does its best to make sure the public also benefits from resource extraction is likely the thing that really scares the beejebuz out of the cronies and the BCL wizards they pay for:

From Alaska Public Radio:Last year, ConocoPhillips announced that it wanted to sell its liquefied natural gas plant on the Kenai Peninsula (in Alaska). The company hasn’t yet found a buyer. Now, a company spokesperson said it’s going to save expenses by mothballing the facility this fall.

It’s the last piece of infrastructure that ConocoPhillips owns in Cook Inlet. And they’re getting closer to shutting it down.

The Kenai LNG facility is up against a world market that’s awash in natural gas.

“Most people are fairly aware of the fact that worldwide the price of oil and gas has been low,” ConocoPhillips Senior Communications Specialist Amy Burnett said...

Well.

I guess that Murkowski woman did vote against separating tens of thousands of Alaskans from their health insurance.

Case in point, the 'Dippers killed the Sparkle Ponies!' screamer from Claudia Cattaneo in last night's soon to be taxpayer propped-up Financial Post:

...With energy prices collapsing globally, and the business in B.C. having a tough time remaining viable, Pacific NorthWest LNG needed less, not more government costs and regulations to stay in the game.

Instead, the new provincial government jacked up its demands, including higher carbon taxes, a “fair” return for resources (read a bigger provincial take), partnerships with First Nations (read fatter benefits agreements), protection for “our air, land and water including living up to our climate change commitments,” as outlined in Premier John Horgan’s mandate letter to the new energy minister, Michelle Mungall.

To make matters worse, Horgan repeatedly singled out Pacific NorthWest LNG during his election campaign as one that was “poorly sited” and that he would relocate (read another environmental assessment and, of course, more costs)...

_______And while we're on the subject...It would appear that Mr. Leyne of the local VTC might have a little explaining to do also. As for the Dean?...The pretzel logic required to blame the Dippers while simultaneously acknowledging the economic reality is astonishing....Harvey Oberfeld follows up with a bit of hardening of what is now becoming conventional wisdom for those who unfortunately refuse to scratch any deeper than the surface....And this really is the problem because, given the proMedia's refusal to clearly state what is really going on, a significant proportion of the electorate who kinda/sorta pay attention like the good Mr. Oberfeld will be convinced that this is an ideological thing going in to the next election. Tragically, that is the kind of thing that can lead to most of that same proportion of folks voting against their own best interests. Meanwhile...Grant G bangs the entire proMedia Club Membership's gong....Again.

...The new government has a huge job just to govern well and roll back some of the worst decisions of the Clark government.

My one hope is that the BCUC review of Site C proves once and for all to those outside the choir what a bad idea spending $9-12 Billion or more on an unneeded source of energy is.

And I hope in the course of RCMP investigations and audits, rocks are overturned that embarrass Baldrey and Fletcher and Palmer into an admission that for the past six years something large has been very wrong in the administration of government by Christy Clark… The willingness of these gentlemen to gloss over and excuse the service of the corporate interest over the public interest has real consequences. These are seen in homeless counts, in the opioid crisis, in the decline of revenue to government from extraction industries who ship more value over time while sustaining us less….and many other places.

Here’s to a long lasting GreeNDP government mixing good public policy with the exposure over time of the reasons everything needs fixing. Here’s to the end of big money controlling public policy . So many things...

Tough to argue with any of that, eh?

****

In the same post Merv also mentioned that, for health reasons, he is going to take a break from blogging for a bit.

Personally, I'm counting the days 'till his next blockbuster post.

In the meantime, he's still dishing it out on the Twittmachine.

Merv, as the slightly older than kid kids (who are not spending all their time on the gram-o-chatty cathy thingies) like to say...A really good follow.

Almost sixty years ago Jack Kerouac was living in that part of town, but not with his second wife (and to be mom to daughter Jan) Joan Haverty, who was there when the 120 feet of teletype was spontaneously prosified from a whole lot of journal entries and such in 1951.

Instead, when he finally got his book deal in 1957, six years after the first full draft was done, Ti Jean's partner at the time was Joyce Glassman.

And on the night before 'On the Road' was finally published Kerouac and Glassman went out searching for early editions of that day's papers so they could read the reviews.

Millstein's lede alone changed everything for the then already 35 yr old Kerouac who had written seven unpublished works since the coffee- and benny-driven days and nights of the teletype scroll:

On the Road" is the second novel by Jack Kerouac, and its publication is a historic occasion in so far as the exposure of an authentic work of art is of any great moment in an age in which the attention is fragmented and the sensibilities are blunted by the superlatives of fashion (multiplied a millionfold by the speed and pound of communications).

This book requires exegesis and a detailing of background. It is possible that it will be condescended to by, or make uneasy, the neo-academicians and the "official" avant-garde critics, and that it will be dealt with superficially elsewhere as merely "absorbing" or "intriguing" or "picaresque" or any of a dozen convenient banalities, not excluding "off beat." But the fact is that "On the Road" is the most beautifully executed, the clearest and the most important utterance yet made by the generation Kerouac himself named years ago as "beat," and whose principal avatar he is.

Just as, more than any other novel of the Twenties, "the Sun Also Rises" came to be regarded as the testament of the "Lost Generation," so it seems certain that "On the Road" will come to be known as that of the "Beat Generation." There is, otherwise, no similarity between the two: technically and philosophically, Hemingway and Kerouac are, at the very least, a depression and a world war apart...

______I'm pretty sure that my kids think that, these days at least,this business of searching for hardcopies of newspapers with stuff about your actual words in them only happens to people like Lena Dunham's character in 'Girls'....I could be wrong about that though...I'm sure they'll let me know either way.And just what the heckfire was Millstein thinking, writing about 'avatars' in 1957?Glassman is pictured in the background of the image, above...She, too, was a writer and the photo comes from the cover of her book titled 'Minor Characters'...You can find her in Keruoac's ouevre as Alyce Newman in 'Desolation Angels'.

Monday, July 24, 2017

Which I'm starting to hate more and more, especially the airport part, for all kinds of reasons, but mostly because of the mad scramble to get on and find a place to jam in your carry-on. I fly lots, but only on the cheapest tickets so all these quarter points are pretty much useless for anything.

Anyway...

When I got home late Wednesday night, the previous Sunday's edition of the New York Times, shown above, was just sitting there, big and fat, on my desk/table down in the subterranean homesick blues room.

Now, in case you haven't noticed, I still have quite a thing for dead-tree editions of the news and such.

It's so bad that when we go on driving road trips the space under my seat in the car fills to bursting with all manner of local rags and big chain homogenowipes from every town and hamlet that we stop in, even if it's only for cinnamon churros and licorice whips.

In contrast, at home I'm more restrained, mostly because I just don't have time to read everything cover-to-cover. So I only buy the NYTimes once a week, on Fridays, because I like to learn about all the shows and movies I will not see in considerable detail. Also, I get it for the Krugman v. Brooks on opposite sides of the same static page, all pugnacious like with guest spot Op-Ed's between them acting like referees that wouldn't know a low blow if it hit them right where it hurts.

Anyway, it turns out that the particular Sunday paper in question was bought for me, on that particular Sunday, by littler e. in New York City.

She got it in Times Square while doing her dancing/intern thing for three weeks on her first big post-high school graduation adventure.

The next day we pretty much crossed paths in Pearson. I did not see her, although the text messages were flying.

Imagine that!

______As you may have guessed I'm still reading that particular edition of the Sunday paper...Who knew their could be so many words in the Review of Books about Jane Austen on the 200th anniversary of something or other?

On the weekend Bob Mackin revealed, as learned by a long delayed FOI release that the Vancouver Whitecaps are suing the BC Liberal invention PavCo which manages BC Place and its magic carpet ride of a roof.

Saturday, July 22, 2017

Despite a most misleading headline that reads like it was written by the CTF, Rob Shaw wrote a balanced quick hit about the initial de-cronification efforts of the new provincial government in the VSun yesterday:

VICTORIA — The new NDP government’s transition to power cost taxpayers $11.3 million in severance packages for fired Liberal political staffers...

{snip}

...In 2001, when the B.C. Liberals transitioned in to power after defeating the NDP, the severance bill was $9 million, which, adjusted for inflation, puts it slightly higher than the amount spent by the NDP...

Interestingly, when Mr. Shaw announced his piece on the Twittmachine, the Dean of the Legislative Press Club replied thusly:

Funnily enough, Mr. Palmer did not mention, or even allude to, the following (courtesy IntegrityBC):

Surprised?

______Please note: The numbers, above, in the purple box are just for routine Crony-To-Crony, year over-year severances during the post-GordCo time of Clarklandia...In addition, that $22million, plus does not include cronification upgrades at CrownCorps and/or PublicAgencies. Update: Norm Farrell has more....Much more.

Friday, July 21, 2017

_____The Dobranos?....'Twas a really, really big Golden Era Shew.Hang on a second!....Thanks (once again) to the FOI digging of Bob Mackin, we have learned that there is a two-hatted a spin-off series running that is set to jump the Paragon shark any day now...Sheesh.

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Look what the former astro-turf layer for great the Ice Bomb bridge taxpayer schmozzlepalooza was up to yesterday:

Now.

Let's ignore the absurdity of suggesting that our fine constabulary has something against civil rights for the moment.

And, instead, how about we return to the days of yesteryear, circa 201l?

Which, perhaps not coincidentally, was the last time Ms. Christy Clark actually managed to beat a guy named Eby, who was unknown provincially at the time, in a by-election squeaker. Interestingly, in the run-up to voting day Ms. Clark levelled essentially the same smear at Mr. Eby.

Here's what I wrote about that at the time:So.

It would appear that things have tightened a little in the Point Grey by-election.

How do we know this?

Because Christy Clark, debate no-show kill button still in hand, has suddenly gone negative on David Eby calling him an extremist due to his work for civil rights and social justice.

Look.

There is only one person running in tomorrow's bye-bye in creme-de-la-creme ville who has proven that she is an extremist once in power.

****

Before the slash and burning started in earnest to clear out the social slag that would facilitate Gordon Campbell's really, really big plans to privatize everything there was first the BC Liberal Party's 2001 election platform.

An election platform that was co-written by Christy Clark.

And before there was the privatization of the Ferries, and the Railway, and the Roads, and the Bridges, and the Subway, and the Hospital Services, and the MSP Billing, and the Accounting, and the Rivers, there was the privatization of many, many services delivered by the Ministry of Child and Family Development.

And when the latter all blew up with the Doug Walls/CareNET debacle that cost subsequently cost taxpayers millions, who did Gordon Campbell immediately put in charge of Child and Family Development?

Why, none other than...

Yes...

Christy Clark.

Gosh.

Does all of this mean that the wizardry is up to its old tricks once again?

Friday, July 14, 2017

The following is just one of many extremely troubling bits of PR flack-hackery engineered by the wizards behind the Curtain of Clarklandia in the days after the Mount Polley mine disaster, as told to us by Jeremy Nuttall in the Tyee:

...In another brief email Clark’s then director of communications Ben Chin said he had spoken to “Jas” about impending TV news coverage of the spill. The reference, following earlier emails on Global TV’s coverage, appears to refer to Jas Johal, then a Global reporter.

“Just finished talking to Jas... it’s just a heads up, not an interview request. He tells me the pictures at 6 will be very graphic. Imperial (Metals, owned by big BCLiberal donor and fundraiser Murray Edwards) should get out in front,” Chin wrote...

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Here is the lede:VANCOUVER, British Columbia — No nursing home wants to be known for uncertainty and intrigue.

So a Canadian retirement home chain found itself in an uncomfortable position last year when it agreed to be bought by a politically connected Chinese company with a shadowy group of owners. Regulators approved the deal even though the buyer was under regulatory scrutiny in the United States, and while critics in Canada questioned the identities of its local representatives.

Today, the chairman of the Chinese buyer, Anbang Insurance Group, is being held by the Chinese police for undisclosed reasons — and critics say the deal represents the latest example of Canada’s troublingly lax attitude toward Chinese money flooding into the country...

Why can local proMedia Club members no longer ignore the story?

Because the lede, above, comes from a just published piece in the New York Times.

The owner of the (Mars waterbomber) tanker, Wayne Coulson, posted a statement to Facebook late on Sunday night saying that Coulson Aviation has offered support.

“On Saturday, we offered the B.C. Government our available aircraft and have heard nothing back as of tonight,” the statement said. “We have offered two Sikorsky S-61 heavy-lift helicopters, each with a 4000 litre capacity and one S-76 command and control helicopter that was in Australia this Spring and is approved to fight fire at night with our Night Vision Goggle capability....

What's it really all about this time Alfie?

Well, unlike at least one of the BC Liberals go-to aviation companies, Mr. Coulson both kicked up a fuss and refused to pay awhile back. As a result Coulson and Co. were essentially shut out of the firefighting business in British Columbia.

Laila Yuile laid it all out in a piece three summers ago:

...(I)t was the spring of 2013 when the owner of the Coulson group came out
strongly against the BC Liberals prior to the election, and the poor
Liberal forest policies that impacted small communities all over the
province...

Sunday, July 09, 2017

A Kamloops-area branch of the United Steelworkers union is spending its weekend feeding, and in some cases, housing wildfire evacuees.

Kyle Wolff, president of United Steelworkers Local 7619 which represents the Teck Highland Valley Copper Mine, spearheaded the effort...

(link)

....The volunteers have set up a mobile kitchen at Kamloops’ McArthur Island evacuation centre, where Wolff says they’re feeding both evacuees and stranded travellers from as far away as Vancouver and Prince George.

He (Wolff) says multiple people have also stepped forward to open their homes to strangers with nowhere to stay.

“As funny as it sounds, I didn’t expect anything different. We’ve always been there for the community and any time we’ve ever reached out for assistance we get more phone calls than I can handle. I had to at one point send people home, because we had too many volunteers, which is not a bad thing,” Wolff said...